Dec 31 2007
A summing up of what's happened in 2007.
Netscape Officially Dead as of Feb 01 2008!
Plasma TV versus LCD: Lee Osborbe
http://reviews.cnet.com/4351-12658_7-6583301.html
Paul has made the audio of the show available here
The approximate times are from the beginning of the mp3 and are in decimal minutes.
2.5 min
HDTV; plasma vs. LCD
Plasma may be on the way out.
4.83 min
Caller's question about installing a modem in a Mac G5 tower.
Suggestion to use a USB modem.
10.42 min
More info on plasma tv's.
Some disadvantages: burn-in, weight, possibly life span
13.5 min
Caller has 6 year old PC with Win2000, should he upgrade?
Dell still has some PC's with WinXP: dell.com
Businesses are advised to have second machine before the 1st one fails.
20.5 min
More on plasma vs. LCD displays.
There may (or not) be a difference in the off-angle viewing.
Plasma may have more glare than LCD.
See the above link for a comparison of the two.
24 min
Digital tv switch over is coming Feb 2009: www.dtv2009.gov
Digital does not imply high definition.
More on plasma vs. LCD displays.
29.25 min
Credit to the people, behind the scenes, who make the Zentech program happen.
34.26 min
Support for Netscape has ceased.
See the above link.
A little about its history & its ties to AOL.
Does the AOL software have problems with Vista?
36.76 min
Caller concerned about damaged hard drive.
Tips on recovering data from it.
Some credit card companies may double the warranty.
39.9 min
Caller wants to use a modem with a laptop.
Glenn's Diamond Supra Shotgun modem can combine 2 phone lines to increase thru-put
USB modem suggested over a serial modem
42.56 min
Glenn's ASUS mini-laptop & others can be used with a large external display.
Caller claims the latest version of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) has a great display.
46.25 min
Trick with pulling off the Polaroid film from a watch or LCD display.
It can then only be read wearing Polaroid glasses.
48.75min
Free & highly valued software:
AVG anti-virus: free.grisoft.com
Spybot anti-spyware (includes file shredder): www.spybot.de
Ad-aware anti-spyware: www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php
Firefox browser (many plugins, more basic interface): mozilla.com
Thunderbird email & usenet: mozilla.com
Opera browser (some plugins, more user-friendly settings): opera.com
Zone Alarm firewall (for those without XP + service pack 2): www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp
Audacity Audio editor: audacity.sourcforge.net
Audacity plugin called Lame (for saving mp3): lame.buanzo.com.ar
Belarc Advisor profile of installed software & hardware:
www.belarc.com/free_download.html
Hardware:
iPod, iTouch: apple.com
Treo (cell phone & organizer): palm.com
All imaginable disclaimers apply. Use the above at your own risk
Dec 17 2007
Tech gadgets for Christmas is the theme. If you found something cool, call in and share.
Seems more & more people's annoyance at the rampant materialism of the season simply causes many to not want or give give presents as such this year more than ever-
Consider events to do together, specially chosen software for family & freinds, and creative toys like sound and video editing software for those powerful machines!
Consider having a Tech Free Week over the holiday season! the iPod after all is one of the worst offedners for social isolation and separation. If thsi suggestion seems weird coming from the Tech Guys, consider that the worlds greatest and earliest conservationists were- Hunters (If you do not beleive me, look up "forest laws" in Google! before turning everythign OFF!)
Happy 60th birthday, Transistor!
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/14/ft_transistor/page2.html
Control Pro Tools from an iPhone:
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/12/11/iphone-hacked-to-control-pro-tools/
MAC: "Leopard" Also Known As MAC OS 10.5 will not just run on Intel CPUs. But will NOT run on a G4 (PowerPC) unless the CPU is at least 850MHz!
iPod Classic– 6th Generation- the Video one…Of Sep 2007 has an UPdate ot 1.0.3- Should One Do That? Yes. (I Say). Note that video adapters to play back trhough TC MUCT be those designed for thsi species of iPod and NOT for earleir ones! $49 from Apple. Less from China by way of eBay or whatever..
Show Notes by Glenn; THANKS Glenn!
Gift cards, starting in January 2008 may not expire and may not have fees applied to them when purchased from a retailer http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/core_financial_services/000256.html
Pre-paid credit card: Lisener called in to say: a $25.00 one had a $4 'premuim' which appied for values up to $200.00. These cards are useful if you do not trust using your regular credit card online or for family members to go to college etc.
Re: gift giving, http://www.heifer.org foundation and others non-profits gift agricultural resources.
Kiva foundation at http://www.kiva.org micro loan contribution for charitable purposes.
Iphone clones from Taiwan & China http://www.itechnews.net/2007/05/25/cect-p168-iphone-clone/ and many more.. these do not pretend to be iPhones(Lawsuits!) they just look & operate somewhat liek them.
Moving old outlook files from an old hard drive to a new installation on a new computer, hunt for file name OUTLOOK.PST (do a search for it). First in a folder, enable “show hidden files and folders”.
Open the new outlook, then close it. Now move the old outlook.pst into the new position on the new computer.
DSL & wireless phones Verizon updates each month *228 then select option 2
Nintendo DS can play educational games
Mac quicktime to view u-tube pictures, since last upgrade of quicktime it won’t work, but flash player does work
ASUS Mini Laptop Review
Heya Folks,
They are out of stock but Buy.Com is taking orders!!!
I LOVE my new little EeePC from ASUS …. the only problem so far is the tiny keyboard which takes some getting used to … though I have typed this entire sentence without any problems !
I WILL NOT install Windows XP as the included Xandros version if Linux is working quite well. Not to hard to get used to since it is a nice graphical interface.
The wireless has worked well at KVMR and here at Club Sierra.
There are 3 USB ports and I am using an external mouse as any touchpad is a challenge for me.
The built in 4 gig of storage is really only 1.3 gig once you figure in the Linux operating system but if you're not going to use this to download and store stuff, that shouldn't be a problem plus there is an SD/MMC slot that I have a 4 gig SD card in.
After calling ASUS to find out that the unit can handle up to 1 gig of RAM, and that opening it won't void the warranty, I removed the shipped 512 mb stick and put in a 1 gig stick without any difficulty.
I have tried to install the Opera Web Browser and still am not successful but the included Firefox and Thunderbird work well. I even found a calculator with a little searching 😉
I would STRONGLY recommend this unit to anyone wanting a sub 2 pound "PC" that will be very easy to travel with.
If you have any questions just let me know.
Listed below is a link to Costco's Samsung 7" PC for $999 but it doesn't have a keyboard, it is all screen! Though is does have a 60 gig hard drive.
Good Luck Folks!
Glenn
Dec 03 2007
Thank you Paul for providing the podcast (mp3) of the Dec 3 show:
http://zen.kvmr.org/archive/ZenTech_Dec_03_2007.mp3
Subjects mentioned on the show and the number of minutes (decimal) from the beginning of the mp3.
1 min
Some details about the Pharos GPS unit model pdr150
6.25 min
ASUS Eeepc mini-laptop with solid state hard drive; running Linux
see Glenn's review:
http://zen.kvmr.org/content/view/52/7/
10 min
A similar unit is the Palm Foleo;
product discussion:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/palm-foleo-announced/
but it's discontinued:
http://blog.palm.com/palm/2007/09/a-message-to-pa.html
12.33 min
USB floppy drive can be found at:
tigerdirect.com
16,5 min
Tips for improving a wireless signal,
20 min
Suggestion to use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer 7:
mozilla.com
22.66 min
Pluses & minus; pc vs mac laptops
Real estate people & accountants — take a listen to the podcast at about 24.9 min
Sorry, I couldn't decern what Paul said, something like..apple.com/switchsit
29.5 min
Rumor has it that DSL is available "on the ridge", but don't tell anyone, it's a secret
att.comto check for availability of DSL in your area
31.5 min
Tips for installing a bigger hard drive & bringing the OS & data over to the new one.
Running Windows & Linux on the same pc.
34.66 min
Boot Linux from CD to try it out. Install to your hard drive if you like it.
knoppix.com or ubuntu.org
38 min
Ghost from Norton and Partition Quest (or is it Partition Magic) to bring an image of a hard drive to another drive.
Possibly some free software to do a disk image at download.com.
42.5 min
Does it make sense to buy an Apple to run windows with Bootcamp. And more pc vs. mac banter
Open Office instead of Microsoft Office:
openoffice.org
48.5 min
Dell laptop power supply pin broke, there may be a recall
support.dell.com
50.5 min
What'a on next week… more Christmas gift suggestions
Nov 19 2007
Does Symatec Suck & is it laying people off?
http://symantec-sucks.blogspot.com/
and
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/11/12/symantec_november_layoffs/
Happy 35th Birthday Intel CPU, the 4004, predecessor of All Things PC Chip! http://www.4004.com includes a Way Cool Simulator